At 6 feet, 7 inches and 320 pounds, Saints offensive tackle Zach Strief knows a little something about food. So he decided to put that expertise to good use this offseason, producing a cookbook for his charitable foundation called, "When you're the Biggest Guy on the Team!"

Strief considers himself just an amateur chef - "I'm the family cook," he said. But he said about 40 of the recipes in the book are his.

They have a heavy Italian influence, since he grew up in an Italian family in Cincinnati, but there is plenty of flavor from food meccas New Orleans and Chicago, where he lived in college.

"It's kind of bringing all the places I've been together," said Strief, who was clearly influenced by his parents, who started a tailgating association at Northwestern.